Start Anew
by existence555
Summary: Spoilers for chapter 574. Ace never quite registered that he had blood related family. Oneshot.


**A/N: I was heartbroken when I read this chapter. So yeah, here is what came out of it. I wanted to make something more hopeful, rather than something angsty. Review, please!**

"Roger, your son's coming!"

Gol D. Roger pushed through the crowd of people so that he could see Ace. His son had just died, died with a wide grin on his face.

"Finally!" Roger roared with laughter. "Finally, there'll be someone to really party with in this place. I thought I'd have to wait around for Rayleigh."

The woman next to him was shaking from the sobs that had overcome her body.

"Rouge, don't be a spoilsport," Roger told her, putting a comforting arm around his lover. "Our son is coming to join us!"

She looked at him with teary but fierce eyes.

"That means he's _dead_!" Rouge snapped. "Did you _want_ your son to die so early? He had nakama! He had a _brother_!"

Murmurs ran through the crowd and Roger realized that Ace had arrived. He stroked Rouge's hair with a rough hand as he looked around for the boy.

"Where am I?"

Roger instinctively turned to where the voice had come from; a whisper in the back of his mind hoped that it had been paternal instinct. His eyes landed on a familiar symbol. Apparently, his son had gotten Whitebeard's sign tattooed on his back. Roger clicked his tongue in disapproval before nudging Rouge in the direction of their son.

She looked up, blinking away her tears.

"Ace!" Rouge called.

The newly dead pirate followed the one voice he recognized and his eyes immediately locked with his mother's.

"Mom?" Ace called back, almost sure of the identity of the voice. "Is that you?"

"The whole family's here," Roger snorted, grinning at his son. "Come down here and let your mother get a better look at you, kid."

Ace shot him a glare before making his way to the crying woman he now knew as his mother.

"Ace," Rouge breathed. "I'm so glad to see you."

She put a hand on his cheek, almost unwilling to believe he was really there, with her.

"You've grown strong," Rouge remarked. "Just like your father."

Ace turned away.

"Whitebeard is my father," he reminded her. "I don't recognize _him_ as being related to me in any manner whatsoever."

Rouge turned to Roger, biting her lip.

"He'll take some time," Roger shrugged. "Kids are like that."

He took a few quick steps around Ace so that he was looking straight into his son's eyes.

"I know you're angry at me, kid," Roger said knowingly. "But don't hurt your mother because of it. I'm your father, whether you like it or not, and I _will_ beat some sense into you if I think it's necessary. On another note, you haven't got the right to be angry at me, without knowing some of the things that you need to be told. So, don't be so quick to judge me."

He pulled the skeptical Ace into a short hug, clapping him on the back with a heavy hand.

"You know where to find me, Rouge," Roger told her. "I hear that Whitebeard is supposed to be coming soon too. And I haven't had a good fight in so long that I think I might need to prepare a bit. You, on the other hand, will probably want some bonding time with your son, or whatever the hell it is that women do with their children."

"Roger, don't be an idiot," she retorted. "Of course I want to talk to Ace. I'm going to explain our situation to him."

Ace was shocked by the seemingly average banter the former Pirate King and his lover were exchanging. He was also curious about the 'situation' Rouge was talking about…

"Ace, I'm guessing they didn't feed you too well in that prison," Rouge said, turning back to him. "Come, I'll make you some dinner."

"I, uh…" Ace wasn't sure what to say to that proposal; he'd never had someone that wanted to take care of him like that.

"Be careful," Roger warned him. "Make sure she makes something edible."

Rouge shot him a smoldering glare that sent him off to get ready for Whitebeard's supposed arrival.

"We have a lot to catch up on," Rouge pointed out, smiling. "And your father is just being his normal self. He hasn't had a second death yet and he eats my cooking every day."

"He's not–" Ace began, frustrated.

Her smile stayed in place and she shook her head.

"Your father loves you, Ace," Rouge told him. "As do I. We never stopped."

Ace wasn't sure what to say, so he just nodded absentmindedly. Rouge noticed his discomfort and attempted to make it disappear by pulling him into a hug.

"We missed you," she whispered.

The dead pirate hugged his mother back, sighing. He had lost one family and found another much too quickly for him to be able to process it all. What he knew was that he was that he was in the arms of the woman who had sacrificed herself for him, and for now, that was enough.


End file.
